Home economics: where next for property prices?

The housing market stands delicately poised. With the Halifax's announcement last week that prices were flat in January, both the main lenders' measures are telling a similar story (Nationwide was down a minuscule 0.1%). Prices were weak last autumn, with November the weakest month of all, reflecting a combination of the credit crisis and the distortions caused by the introduction of home information packs. Since then, there has been a flattening out, although activity measures such as mortgage approvals remain weak.

Where do we go from here? Part of the answer will be provided by the buy-to-let sector. Is buy-to-let dead and buried, destroyed by a toxic combination of low returns, worries about property prices and expensive, hard-to-get finance? Or will it prove, as in the 2004-05 housing pause, more resilient than meets the eye? Could it even be that turbulence in financial markets encourages more people to become landlords